We are 37 days in to 2018. Have you been able to keep your New Years Resolutions or goals, that you so keenly set back on Jan 1? Yea, its hard eh? We all have the best of intentions but once reality sets in, its hard to get out of our already-established routines.

I shared my 5 goals for 2018 in my first ever podcast. I’m happy to report that I at least kept the first one – take vitamins for 30 days – which I did successfully in January. Great goal right?! lol I keep telling myself its the small things! ha Now I can focus on my other 4 goals for 2018 😛

A majority of us hop aboard the ‘new year, new me’ train at the beginning of January. But by the second month in, most of that enthusiasm and willingness to hold ourselves accountable to new goals goes out the window. We tell ourselves, “At least we tried, right?”

One thing I’ve personally been trying to hold myself too, is a system that holds me accountable to executing both my personal to-do’s and professional goals, all in one place, in an organized (less chaotic) way.

Its what I’ve been calling ‘personal infrastructure.’ Its what systems, tools, resources, apps, etc I’ve put in place to help me execute my goals as best as possible. Take a look at the 13 ways I’m trying to maintain this personal infrastructure:

Planner/Organizer – I shared a list of planners to use last year; this is the weekly planner I chose to use for 2018. I am a list-makin’ machine, there really is nothing better than crossing off your to-do’s once you get them done!

Cozi calendar app – I recently discovered and downloaded this app to help manage one consistent calendar, so both Andrew and I can use and update all of our important dates in one place.

Feedly – there are a lot of well-written and inspiring blogs out there. The Feedly platform allows me to read them all in one organized place.

Pocket – I blame the overabundance of articles that I find on Twitter as to why I always have a million tabs open. I fixed this by downloading this app to easily store and read these articles at a later time.

*To Read* inbox rule – I subscribe to newsletters that can sometimes fill up the ol’ inbox. I created a rule within my personal email inbox that automatically puts all of those newsletter subscriptions into a ‘To Read’ folder when they arrive. You can set up any number of rules so all of your emails come in and are sorted in advance of opening up your inbox #genius

Evernote– I have this on my laptop to help organize random chicken scratch ideas and my writing.

Tweetdeck– this platform is what I use to execute tweets on Twitter if I have planned content to send out in advance.

Hope you are enjoying your coffee this morning like I am, how awesome are Saturday mornings?!

Something I’ve gotten A LOT better at in 2016 (there is always still room for improvement, of course!) is trying to set more healthy boundaries in both my personal and professional life. It dawned on me over the holidays at the end of 2015 that the insanity that is life, will always be this crazy and insane. Its how you manage it and decide to make it as crazy/insane (in a fun way!) that will dictate how much of the journey you enjoyed in life.

I realized that if I continually take on more activities, to-do’s, say yes to too many things, push myself TOO far and TOO hard, burn the candle from both ends and don’t refuel and recharge myself, then it is a recipe for disaster. I really am a ‘work hard, play hard’ type of person but at what point do you decide that you are over-doing everything and not really enjoying anything? Its something ask yourself.. something I’m glad I did at the end of 2015.

In an effort to try and help myself, I proactively decided it was time to set better boundaries to everything I was doing, both at work, at home, with The Passionate Voice and in my extra-curriculars. I have taken small steps to create some helpful boundaries that really do add up to more free time throughout my day resulting in feeling a lot more productive and purposeful at the end of the day. If you’re in the same position as I am and need some quick and actionable steps to feel like you’re making changes that will help, try one (or all) of these changes I’ve made and let me know what you think!

10 Steps I’ve Taken to Set Healthy Boundaries in 2016

Removing Facebook from my phone as an app

Not checking social media as often as I do (even though it sometimes kills me to miss certain conversations online, its not life or death so I’m fine!)

Use social media more purposefully – setting scheduled tweets/posts and using it in a more professional/productive manner rather than just wasting time on it

Creating a ‘To Read’ folder in my inbox and setting it up so all of the subscriptions/eBlasts I subscribe too automatically go into the folder for me to read at a determined time

Using 3 methods to capture all of my blog reading I like to do by using Feedly,Pocket, and creating a Microsoft OneNote for all the articles I want to save and reference for future use

Limiting the number of blogs I follow and read – this one has been hard because I’ve been a loyal blog reader for 10+ years to many blogs but there comes a time where only the blogs of most value and the ones that are the funnest to read are what I consider the most enriching so I’ve got 100+ blogs down to under 25!

Creating a reading schedule so I only check and use these 3 above mentioned platforms and read from my ‘To Read’ email folder once a week. I have apps on my iPhone and desktop so I can easily save articles of interest, but I only read them at a scheduled time slot every Monday morning.

Going to bed earlier and (really) making a conscious effort to not use my phone before bed

Working out more – this has seriously changed how healthy not only my body is but my mind as well – I have felt so much sharper and fresher since I started working out on a regular basis again.

Taking planned days off and getting outdoors where I don’t plan anything; don’t open up my laptop to send one last email and try and get outdoors to do something fun (since I spend a lot of my time indoors during the week)